Page 30 - World Airnews Magazine November 2020

FUEL DRONES

SUSTAINABLE AVIATION FUEL MADAGASCAR DRONE

EXPERIMENTS

By Rivonala Razafison
hell will purchase Sustainable
SAviati on Fuel (SAF) and cellulosic

renewable diesel fuel from Red Rock’s new o achieve its ambitious large-scale

biorefinery in Lakeview, Oregon. Treforestati on goals, Madagascar is
Shell will distribute this SAF to Red Rock’s turning to the sky. The country will use drones
existing airline customers and market Red to plant trees in isolated areas. The plan is to

Rock’s cellulosic renewable diesel fuel. drop up to 400,000 tree seeds per day.

By combining Red Rock’s production capa- In a speech to the senate recently prime

bilities with Shell’s technical and commercial minister Christian Ntsay mentioned the ac-

expertise and world-class supply chain, the quisition of 10 drones to augment manual

companies are demonstrating how working tree-planting efforts by enabling coverage

together is enabling the production and of difficult-to-access areas. The purchase

distribution of SAF and cellulosic renewable will take place sometime this year.

diesel and supporting the decarbonisation The country aims to produce an average

of aviation and heavy transport. of 60 million young seedlings per year,

“We are excited to have Shell join our from forests at risk of wildfire to create SAF opportunities to increase availability of SAF focusing on native and threatened precious
strong team of project partners on our and cellulosic renewable diesel. today and tomorrow,” said Anna Mascolo, wood species, such as rosewood and

Lakeview biorefinery,” said Terry Kulesa, “This has been one of the most devastat- president of global aviation at Shell. ebony. It will also consider fast-growing
CEO of Red Rock. ing wildfire seasons on record,” said Kulesa. “Increasing SAF is dependent on collabo- trees like paulownia and acacia, as well as

“With its operational capabilities and “We have seen wildfires grow in intensity, ration across the whole value chain. We are bamboo, according to Ntsay. with the more typical methods of plant- seed dispersers such as lemurs and certain

global supply chain expertise, Shell is ideal- acreage, and damage to public health and the proud to work together with Red Rock to The government will engage citizens in ing saplings by hand and dropping seeds endemic bird species. For millions of years,

ly positioned to support us in helping make environment. One of the many potential ben- support the development of their innovative growing and manually planting trees at the from planes. The prime minister’s June these species, the majority of which are now

low-carbon SAF and cellulosic renewable efits of the plant is to reduce the waste woody new production facility in Lakeview, Oregon.” district and municipal level. announcement of the drone acquisition threatened, have helped forests reproduce

diesel more widely available to airlines and biomass lying on the forest floor which may In general, lifecycle carbon emissions Since 2000, Madagascar has lost 23% of signalled this would become reality. without human intervention.

heavy transport companies who are com- help to mitigate the spread of wildfires.” from SAF and cellulosic renewable diesel its forests. In total, 3.89 million hectares (9.6 “I sincerely think that it is an excellent and

mitted to reducing emissions and tackling “Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is crucial are expected to be up to 80% lower than million acres) were lost between 2001 and praiseworthy initiative,” said Laza Randriam- In terms of soil quality, Ratsimbazafy of

climate change.” to aviation’s success in reaching net zero conventional jet fuel. The SAF will be sup- 2019, or nearly 205,000 ha (506,000 acres) ifidimanana, an entrepreneur and founder GERP said he’s not very optimistic. Accord-

ing to him, in many places Madagascar’s

Red Rock’s bio-refinery is scheduled for emissions by 2050, alongside new technol- plied to airports through existing airport per year, according to Global Forest Watch. of Threeshells Madagascar, an Antananarivo soil, besieged by fires for years, is poor in

completion early next year. Once opera- ogies and high-quality carbon credits. But infrastructure and can be used blended by Conservationists fear that if the destruc- firm specializing in cutting-edge technol- the nutritive elements necessary for seed

tional, it will be the world’s first commercial to enable SAF to fulfil its potential we need airlines without requiring technical modifi- tion continues at this rate, Madagascan ogies. He said he had experimented with growth. “The success of reforestation is not

scale plant to utilise waste woody biomass to be pro-active and resolute in finding cation to their current fleet. Q forests won’t survive longer than a few using drones for small-scale reforestation, as measured by the numbers planted, but by

more decades. a matter of personal interest. “The advan- the number of living trees,” he added.

“For we conservation professionals, tage of drones is that we have much more Similarly, Lily-Arison René de Roland,

DEFENCE to hear that Madagascar will once again feedback from testing and improvement.” national director of the US-based Peregrine

become a green island is one of the Although the government has not made Fund’s Madagascar project, said follow-
encouraging pieces of news,” said Jonah public the model of drone it will purchase, ing up on plantings was of paramount

Ratsimbazafy, a primatologist and general

RAMJET MISSILE TECHNOLOGY secretary of the Madagascar Primate Study the ones best known for tree-planting were importance. This includes monitoring and
developed by the UK-based start-up Den-

maintaining seedlings and constructing
and Research Group (GERP).

Engineering). This system, used in Myan-
In March 2019, President Andry Rajoelina dra Systems (formerly known as BioCarbon firebreaks around reforested areas, he said.
Bushfires are a major factor in the destruc-

and sea strike weapons systems. ing supersonic and hypersonic technol- announced the goal of reforesting 40,000 mar since 2018, launches seed missiles into tion of Madagascar’s forests.

“The SPEAR flight demonstrator will ogies include the X-51 Waverider test ha (99,000 acres) per year over five years. isolated areas lacking trees. Ratsimbazafy warned against the planting

oeing and the US Navy will provide the F/A-18 Super Hornet and vehicle in 2010 and the variable flow The programme aims to reconstruct the According to the news site Turfu, these of eucalyptus, which are notoriously wa-

Bdemonstrate advanced missile carrier strike group with significant ducted rocket propulsion system under island’s green architecture and restore drones first fly over the target area to map ter-intensive, and pines, which he said can
improvements in range and survivabil-
the triple target terminator programme

technologies that will make carrier air ity against advanced threat defensive in 2014. ecological balance to a country confronted it and collect data on soil conditions and block development of young saplings and

wing strike fighters more lethal against systems,” said Steve Mercer, Boeing’s Boeing is the world’s largest aero- by the challenges of climate change and topography. Analysis of the data informs “condemn” soils. For decades, people have

threats into the next decade. SPEAR programme manager. space company and leading provider development. development of the interventions and con- planted these trees across Madagascar for

Boeing has been awarded a (US) “We have a talented team of engi- of commercial airplanes, defence, Last year, the country planted 41,065 ha figuration of the drones for aerial seeding. construction material, firewood and char-

$30 million contract from the navy to neers to meet the challenging technical space and security systems, and global (101,000 acres): 38,609 ha (95,000 acres) In Madagascar, conservation experts coal. They represent an economic asset but
on land and 2,457 ha (6,000 acres) of
co-develop the supersonic propulsion demands and schedule timeline that services. As a top US exporter, the mangroves. remain on guard. “The approach requires are colonizing many wooded areas, even

enabled advanced ramjet (SPEAR) flight the SPEAR program requires. We look company supports commercial and rigorous sorting of the seeds according to conservation sites. This is also the case

demonstrator with the Navy’s air war- forward to working with Navy experts government customers in more than After having experimented with drones the characteristics of the soil,” said Mamy with grevilleas, planted by aerial seeding in

fare centre weapons division. to advance technologies for the Navy’s 150 countries. to help with relief efforts during natural Rakotoarijaona, director-general of Mada- the late 1980s to reverse deforestation and
disasters and to deliver medical supplies in
prevent soil erosion.

The contract award comes after the future capabilities.” Building on a legacy of aerospace gascar National Parks, a quasigovernmental

department of defence requested Boeing and the navy air warfare leadership, Boeing continues to lead in remote regions, Madagascar is now turning agency responsible for managing many At the time of this story’s original publi-

to drones for the environment.

of the country’s protected areas. “Those

information from the defence industry centre weapons division plan to fly the technology and innovation, deliver for adapted for low-altitude regions will never cation, the MEDD had not specified which

to help the navy determine technical re- SPEAR demonstrator in late 2022. its customers and invest in its people In January last year, during the official tree species would be planted by aerial

quirements of future carrier-based land Prior successes by Boeing in develop- and future growth. Q reforestation campaign launch, the govern- give the yields expected at high altitude.” seeding or where the drones would be
deployed, nor provided details on the mon-
ment announced it was exploring the use
Rakotoarijaona said that today mechanical

of drones in difficult-to-access areas, along planting techniques are replacing natural itoring of reforestation by drones. Q

World Airnews | November / December 2020 World Airnews | November / December 2020
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